Legitimate division of large data sets, salami slicing and dual publication, where does a fraud begin?

Source

Department of Orthopaedics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, SE-431 80, Mölndal, Sweden, Jon.karlsson@telia.com.

The number of submitted manuscripts is increasing sharply from year to year in almost all international journals. Among the many reasons for the increased number of manuscripts, salami slicing deserves special attention. Salami slicing consists of splitting data from the same research into small units, each of which is submitted—and in many cases published—separately. Whereas a single study previously led to the submission of a single—large—article, the data may now be divided into several manuscripts, which are subsequently submitted to a single journal or to several journals. The prevalence of salami slicing, although not unappreciable, is difficult to determine. Reported values have ranged from only 1 % [1] or 1.8 % [6] to more than 15 % [2]. Salami slicing is driven by an author’s desire or need to achieve a larger number of publications, in order to gain recognition, move up on the academic career ladder, attract research funds by increasing the institution’s visibility and/or obtain financial gain [3, 7, 9].

TimAllenMDJD

Friday, January 25, 2013